HYDERABAD: The top two Indian male singles shuttlers — Kidambi Srikanth (World No 3) and HS Prannoy (World No 10) — have pulled out of the Indonesia Masters, a World Tour Super 500 tournament that will commence on Wednesday. While Srikanth is out with a “small injury”, Prannoy has developed a foot corn. Sameer Verma and Parupalli Kashyap will lead India’s campaign in the main draw of men’s singles.
Srikanth tweeted on Tuesday: “I will not be taking part in the Indonesia masters this week due to a small injury but will be playing India Open next week.”
When Express contacted Prannoy, he said: “Due to a foot corn I developed soon after the Premier Badminton League (PBL), I have decided not to participate in the tournament.”
The Super 500 tournament was supposed to be the kick-off event for the Indian stalwarts who were last seen in action in the recently concluded PBL. However, the itinerary of both the top Indian women’s singles players — PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal — will not be tweaked as they are ready to set the 2018 ball rolling.
Srikanth had a stellar 2017 season during which he lifted four Superseries titles and was a runner-up once. Of late, he has struggled with injuries and the PBL was disappointing too as he lost three matches to Prannoy, B Sai Praneeth and Tzu Wei Wang.
Saina has a tough task at hand as she will be up against fast-rising Chinese star Chen Yufie (World No 8). On the other hand, Sindhu will not lose her sleep over her first round opponent Hanna Ramadini, who is World No 33.
With a depleted Indian contingent, all eyes will be on Sindhu, who has been in stupendous form. She won three titles last season, and had a satisfactory PBL outing with Chennai Smashers. Good news for the fans is that they will not have to wait for too long to see Srikanth in action again, as his tweet suggests.
vishal@newindianexpress.com